The present invention relates to a vessel conveying system, and in particular, to a vessel conveying system which includes reject means for selectively discharging a vessel at a reject position located in the course of a conveying path for vessels.
A vessel processing line including conveying means such as conveyors on which a multitude of vessels are continuously conveyed to be successively introduced into a variety of vessel processors for purpose of processing the vessels is extensively in use. Arrangements are known in the art in which each vessel processor of the line is confined in a closed sterile chamber so that the processing of each vessel takes place in a sterile environment.
However, in a vessel processing line in which vessels are processed while they are being continuously conveyed, in the event of a failure or outage of a processor for a prolonged length of time, the vessels must be cleared from the processor. Accordingly, a rejector or rejectors are usually provided along the vessel conveying path of the line to allow the vessels to be rejected whenever necessary.
When externally discharging the rejected vessels from the vessel processor in an arrangement in which each vessel processor is disposed within a sterile chamber, it is necessary to avoid destroying the sterile environment in the sterile chamber. Depending on the requirement of the processing applied in each vessel processor, allowing the ambience within the sterile chamber to be released outside may be hazardous to the health of human beings. In such instance, it is necessary to take the vessels which are rejected in the course of the vessel conveying path to the outside of the chamber without opening the chamber in which the reject means is provided. However, there is no known arrangement which allows the vessels to be discharged while maintaining the sterile ambience within the sterile chamber in which the rejector is provided.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vessel conveying system in which vessels are supplied to vessel processors disposed within a sterile chamber to be processed and then discharged to be fed to a succeeding step, and in particular, a vessel conveying system including a rejector or rejectors which selectively reject vessels in the course of a conveying path, which allows vessels rejected by the rejector or rejectors to be discharged to the outside of a sterile chamber while maintaining a sterile ambience in the sterile chamber.
Above object is accomplished by a vessel conveying system including reject means which selectively discharges a vessel at a reject position located in the course of a conveying for vessels and comprising a discharge chute for receiving a vessel discharged by the reject means from the conveying path to convey it downstream, a first chamber surrounding the reject means, and a second chamber extending from the first chamber to the outside and surrounding a downstream portion of the discharge chute, the second chamber including a glove which can be brought into contact with the discharge chute while maintaining a sterile condition thereof and a door which can be opened and closed and through which a vessel is discharged from the downstream end of the discharge chute.
In the described vessel conveying system, a vessel which is rejected in the course of the conveying path for vessels by the reject means disposed within the first chamber is received by the discharge chute to be conveyed downstream where it is surrounded by the second chamber. After the rejected vessel has been moved from the first chamber in which the reject means is disposed to a separate, second chamber in which the discharge chute is disposed, the vessel is discharged through an open door of the second chamber. In this manner, the rejected vessel can be simply taken out of the sterile chamber without detracting from the ambience within the first chamber in which the reject means is provided. The provision of the glove in the second chamber which surrounds the downstream portion of the discharge chute allows an access from the outside while maintaining the sterile condition if a trouble occurs within the discharge chute.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vessel conveying system which prevents the ingress of an external ambience into the first chamber in which the reject means is disposed and which also prevents the discharge of an ambience within the first chamber and any upstream chamber to the exterior.
Such object is accomplished by providing a pressure control means for controlling the pressures in the first and the second chamber, the pressure control means operating so that the pressure within the first chamber is maintained higher than a pressure which prevails outside the first and the second chamber and the pressure within the second chamber is lower than the pressure which prevails outside the first and the second chamber.
With the vessel conveying system according to the present invention, the interior of the first chamber in which the reject means is disposed is controlled to a higher pressure, thus preventing the ingress of the ambience outside the first chamber or within the second chamber while the second chamber in which the downstream portion of the discharge chute is disposed is controlled to be a lower pressure than the outside of the first or the second chamber, preventing the ambience within the first chamber or any upstream chamber from flowing externally through the second chamber.